8th Annual Fundraiser at Slugger’s in Chicago

It’s already been 8 years, but here I am, publicizing yet another awesome fundraiser in memory of an amazing girl. Every March since 2002, hundreds of people have come out for a night of fun, music and mayhem in memory of Shannon McNamara, the inspiration behind Girls Fight Back. Each year we’ve worked to raise money for a specific project that is geared towards making women and girls safer and stronger. This year is particularly significant, as it’s the first time our goal is to raise money for women half a world away in Nairobi, Kenya.

I first met Lee Sinclair, founder of I’m Worth Defending, in July 2008. We were both speaking at the National Women’s Martial Arts Federation annual conference. We developed an immediate girl crush on each other and I’m simply in awe of what this woman has accomplished in such a short amount of time. I’ll be traveling to Kenya in January 2010 to teach women’s safety and self-defense with Lee, and during 2009 I’ll be busy fundraising for it. It’s my hope to also bring along a film crew and make a documentary about the experience. The world needs to see what is happening in Africa, and so little money makes such a huge difference there.

So this year on Fri. March 13th, we’ll be partying it up, remembering Shannon and raising money for I’m Worth Defending. If you cannot attend the event, I’m hoping you will consider making a donation by clicking here. My goal is to raise $10,000 during 2009 for the trip in 2010. Here’s a little more event info, for all you crazy Chicagoans…I will see you there.

There’s horrific violence against women occuring in Africa- the worst in the Congo. Also Sudan. Extremely violent gang rapes and destruction of women’s bodies. It’s been on the news more lately which is good. Here’s one website and how you can help with their camapaigns:

How will the money you raise for “Worth Defending” be used? Is this for their general funds or to help you pay for a film crew or what? It would help us to know what the moeny is going to. (I couldn’t find a way to post or ask on their blog.)

Thanks for sharing the link, Liz. Reminds me of that HBO movie by Lisa Jackson, The Greatest Silence. Horrifying.

As one might assume, just getting to Kenya is quite the financial undertaking. Thankfully my frequent flyer miles will take care of flights. Funds raised will offset the other trip expenses (van, driver, place to crash, food) for the U.S. instructor team, as well as new equipment for the Kenyan instructors and money for their operational costs. Each year, they wonder how they’ll find funding. They do such great work, I wish finances were no obstacle.

Donated money will not be used for the film. Hoping to get equipment and crew donated, if at all possible. We’d like this film to be shown online for free, as a measure to raise awareness.

Last March I was invited to a special screening of The Greatest Silence. I was astonished and grateful to finally have a film I could point to that showed what was happening to women and children in Africa.
I had already started IWD in Kenya and was busy raising funds by trying to describe rape in Africa. Words just don’t do it. You have to see it to believe it.
I’ve been promoting The Greatest Silence ever since.

Anytime anyone is willing to leave their day job and go half way around the world to film atrocities against women and children we MUST support them. Erin and Allison are raising their own funds to get there. We MUST raise awareness, the problem is catastrophic and affects generations to come. Every dime of donations to IWD goes to supporting the teams work in Kenya. The IWD USA staff is all volunteer. We are chronically under funded as we compete with many worthy organizations for resource dollars – mainly ‘aftercare.’ We recently had the grace to find a family foundation with enough vision to support a Stanford Research project about IWD that will be a template for a new global response to rape. Erin and Allison are a part of promoting that new response.

Woman and children need help NOW. They can’t wait for new legislation to be enacted by resistant police forces. Self defense is effective and is probably the only thing most women and children will ever have to prevail in the moment of assault. We must do all we can to provide our clients with the most hard core effective SD arsenal of options available in the world today. It takes money to do it and, I believe, an army of women with a passion for this issue.

I agree with you especially about the need for hard core skills. I’m outspoken about this and have been here. I don’t support fluffing up self defense with cute cookie- cutter formulas that are easy to sell. it doesn’t matter whether that’s here or Africa. IMO self defense is alwyas potentially about life and death.

thanks for clarifying about the monies. so people can just go to your site to donate.

I think the women’s self defense movement since its inception HAS been this new template for dealing with rape. other studies have also show how this response (teaching sd) is effective and it’s great you’re doing this with your group in Kenya.

BUT… the thing is, in a place like Congo, (i don’t know if this is so in Kenya) the level of violence and rape, gang rapes, the massive use of weapons, knives and gunshots fired into women’s genitals – if you’ve seen the films and read the testimonails you know what I mean – is of a level of volence way beyond that which pesonal self defense can resolve or be effective, unless you arm all the women which is why it’s so important to focus on changes to the society and governance. The truth is that these men rapists CAN do this and the women DON’T have power or recourse. They simply don’t… yet. It’s like this in other places too. In some places if a woman fights back in self defnese her life will be in MORE jeoapardy. These women don’t have “choices.” So until the country and its laws and enforements and fabric of society and the RIGHTS of women change in a BIG WAY this will go on, and personal self defense is not going to solve it.

I don’t just mean resistant police forces as you say, but i mean the entire culture and society and politics and gender politics needs to change.

So (big question here) how is self defense, training really going to help when women are typically attacked by armed gangs (who also commit unspeakable acts like tossing babies into fires) or invoke laws that severly punish women for protecting themselves?

Maybe it’s not like this in kenya, differnet govenment and rules, i think. But if you study the situation in Congo and some other countries you know what i mean.

i hate to say this but i don’t think self defense training is alwasy going to be the best template for responding to global violence and rape agasint women and girls. here in the US and many places yes but it will depend on many factors.

i have a question about kenya. You worte on your blog that if you walk down the street in nairobi, perpetrators are known and they are out and about – why is that? OMG, is there no justice for the victims?

The question: Is there justice for victims? Perhaps somewhere in this world a rapist is found, arrested and pays a penalty for his crime. Many victims or rape survivors, live here in the US with the knowledge that their perptrator(s) will never see time behind bars, be held responsible for their soul devasting crime or feel the shame their victim lives with. The significant error we have committed as a society, is NOT educating boys and men about the horrors of rape, addressing why men think it is ok to rape and stop it in the young boys who are still impressionable, so girls and women can live, work and thrive without self defense classes, fear of being gang raped at a party, after work or in conflict.